Our nanny would go around holding Hemlata on her hip and me by the
hand. Because of [the death of my brothers] my mother was afraid none of her
children would survive. In order to protect us] she put many talismans about
our necks.

Many
poojas were performed in the house of a brahmachari [who resided in Ula].
There was a nice mandir outside his
and inside there was a garden and homa area. The worship of the brahmachari
was performed according to the doctrine of tantra. Cups made from skulls
were kept hidden away in a small room [in his house]. Some people said that
if you gave Ganges water and milk to a skull it would smile. I tried to see
this by giving water and milk to a skull but saw nothing. In that

same
place was the home of a learned man and I would go there to

hear
songs.

During
the Durga festival there would be much eating and

celebration
at the homes of brahmanas. Sometimes, in the hope of

getting
some nice prasada, I would accept an invitation to eat.

In
some homes I would get good dahl along with vegetable curry

and
rice. In other homes I would get khichari and dahl cooked

with
jackfruit and other things. One could get the best curry at

the
house of Visvanatha Mukhopadhyaya. At every house you could

get
goat curry. All of the non brahmana residents of Ula would go

to
the homes of the brahmanas for three days and get prasadam. No

one
would eat at his own house. During the Durga festival giving

food
and eating were the highlight and not so much music and

song.
In other festivals specific arrangements for song and music

were
observed.

Part 3

To
the extent the Mustophi family declined to that extent

the
families of Ramanadas Babu and Sambhanath Mukhopadhyaya

increased
in prestige. In their homes, during the Jagadhatri

pooja,
their affluence was exhibited with dance and song. They

had
horses and elephants, and at their gates they kept increasing

numbers
of western guards. As a man increases his material

possessions
he shows off his increase. At night we would go to

their
houses to hear the loud celebration of song. In the houses

of
Deoyan Mukhopadhyaya and Krishna Mukhopadhyaya Babu

I
saw that

that was very little fanfare.

In
that village joy was full and thus everyone had a happy

face
and was free of worry. Everyone was expert at buffoonery,

therefore
many people got a name for being crazy. Many

respectable
people were known by names such as Ishe Pagal [the

'Madman'],
Ganga Pagal, Pesha Pagal, Sambha Pagal and so on. They

would
go around [both] local and distant places and collect money

by
tricky means for the public poojas.

At
nine year of age I went to Jagat Bhattacarya in order to

study
astrology. Kailash Datta also was making an effort to

practise
this art. I kept notes. Whatever Bhattacarya taught us

we
wrote down and memorized and tried to understand.

Two
of three days after returning from Mollahati Kuti to Ula

my
father came down with a fever. By that time my grandfather's

family
had broken up and my father was the only [surviving] son.

Umacharan
Kaviraj made medicine [for my father]. My grandfather

[also]
gave him medicine made of eighteen ingredients, but gradually the disease
worsened. After eight days there was a change for the worse. Many people
came to see [him]. Many kinds of medicines were administered.